At the end of the
Stanley Spencer Gallery Winter Exhibition in March the Gallery had a visit
from the Birchwood Painters (who all have cerebral palsy) to
look at Spencer's self-portraits. As they were inspired by his works,
Dennis Jeffrey, a Gallery volunteer, suggested they follow the
visit up with a project on self-portraits which would include them taking
a photographic portrait of themselves at their home.

The
artist in the photographs is Mark Urwin. The photograph on Mark's
table is a Spencer self-portrait.

The follow-up workshop took
place on Wednesday 7 May. Four of the participants chose
to take their portraits in their studio whilst one preferred to
use their room because of the wallpaper. Despite
the stress of having a portrait with large camera and
lights and the physical difficulties they had to overcome to
trigger the camera and lights they all succeeded in taking
self-portraits.

Linda's
Self Portrait

They have an open
exhibition on 6th - 21st June at the Scope Residence in Chesham,
Bucks.

Mark
Urwin. He currently has a painting on the Last Supper
influenced by Spencer on show at a church in Marleybone.